And all I got was this t-shirt.
Feb. 27th, 2011 10:50 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bironicI have not been watching the Oscars because I trekked (ha) over to Arlington with ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
deelaundry, ![[personal profile]](https://s.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
ellen_fremedon and greenygal to attend By Any Other Name: An Evening of Shakespeare in Klingon. This included Washington Shakespeare Company board president, linguist and Klingon inventor Mark Okrand giving an introductory talk about the origins and grammar of Klingon, followed by scenes from Much Ado About Nothing and Hamlet in Elizabethan English and in "the original Klingon" (assisted by a literal translation), and Stephen Fry doing the whole Q&A in a Klingon headpiece.
Yes, I said Stephen Fry! Though not advertised on the original Groupon announcement or I would have mentioned it at the time, he was the guest of honor as part of a BBC series he's producing about language. Great fun to hear him deliver his two Klingon lines ("A hit! A palpable hit!"), although he hammed it up a bit too much, and he was eloquent as usual when people asked questions afterwards. He did fun caricatures of McCoy, Kirk, Picard and someone else I've already forgotten,* and mentioned a uni essay he'd done comparing Trek ethics to Nietzsche's argument that tragedy is a tension between the Apollonian and Dionysian ideals, with Spock and various planets the essence of logic in too pure a form and McCoy and various other planets the embodiment of emotion or violence taken too far, and Kirk as the perfect being, balancing between them.
*Mark Okrand's blink-and-you'll-miss-it impression of Christopher Lloyd beat them out, though.
Also I now have a bright red t-shirt with the Klingon empire sigil on the front and "Klingon Security" written across the back. I shall wear it to dance class, since I have been cultivating a reputation for having unusual t-shirts (see also: squid and Dark Mark).
And now, for bed.
deelaundry, ellen_fremedon and greenygal to attend By Any Other Name: An Evening of Shakespeare in Klingon. This included Washington Shakespeare Company board president, linguist and Klingon inventor Mark Okrand giving an introductory talk about the origins and grammar of Klingon, followed by scenes from Much Ado About Nothing and Hamlet in Elizabethan English and in "the original Klingon" (assisted by a literal translation), and Stephen Fry doing the whole Q&A in a Klingon headpiece. Yes, I said Stephen Fry! Though not advertised on the original Groupon announcement or I would have mentioned it at the time, he was the guest of honor as part of a BBC series he's producing about language. Great fun to hear him deliver his two Klingon lines ("A hit! A palpable hit!"), although he hammed it up a bit too much, and he was eloquent as usual when people asked questions afterwards. He did fun caricatures of McCoy, Kirk, Picard and someone else I've already forgotten,* and mentioned a uni essay he'd done comparing Trek ethics to Nietzsche's argument that tragedy is a tension between the Apollonian and Dionysian ideals, with Spock and various planets the essence of logic in too pure a form and McCoy and various other planets the embodiment of emotion or violence taken too far, and Kirk as the perfect being, balancing between them.
*Mark Okrand's blink-and-you'll-miss-it impression of Christopher Lloyd beat them out, though.
Also I now have a bright red t-shirt with the Klingon empire sigil on the front and "Klingon Security" written across the back. I shall wear it to dance class, since I have been cultivating a reputation for having unusual t-shirts (see also: squid and Dark Mark).
And now, for bed.
